[SatNews] Congress passed the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act of 2010 on voice vote. The bill changes how households qualify for outside-market TV signals carried by direct broadcast satellite providers.

DBS operators could, generally speaking, carry these distant-signal to households unable to receive in-market TV stations over the air. The new law loosens how to determine which households fall into that category. The bill — S.3333 — eliminates Grade B bleed, essentially poor reception of a local station, meaning more households will qnow ualify for distant signals. S.3333 extends the distant-signal provision through Dec. 31, 2014. The Senate passed similar legislation on May 7 after earlier passing a standalone bill extending the satellite law for 10 years. The five-year version won out and is on the way to the White House. The legislation accommodates the digital transition, multicast feeds, and noncommercial HD stations and directs DBS providers to provide local broadcast signals in all 210 TV markets. In return, it lifts a court injunction on Dish Network that prevented the service from carrying distant signals.

Also fixed is the cable “phantom signal” issue, when a cable operator carries a particular TV signal in only a portion of its service area, but must pay royalties for the entire area. The bill raises royalty rates to make copyright holders whole. Dish issued the following statement regarding the passage of STELA, “Dish Network congratulates Congress on passing the landmark Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act of 2010, clearing the way for Dish Network to become the first pay-TV provider to make local broadcast stations available in every television market in the United States.”